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Caractacus Potts
Caractacus Potts is the main character of the novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He is a down-on-his-luck inventor living in the English countryside in the 1910's or 1920's. In the movie version, he is portrayed by Dick Van Dyke. Overview Caractacus is the one who rebuilds Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to the delight of his children after buying it for thirty shillings to prevent the car from becoming scrap metal. Once revealed, Caractacus takes his children and his eventual girl friend and love interest, candy heiress Truly Scrumptious in the car to the seaside for a picnic. There, Caractacus tells a story about the wicked Baron Bomburst wanting to get his hands on the car while Caractacus tries to make sure that won't happen. Appearance Caractacus is a man in his 30's, has blue eyes, and dark brown hair. He usually wears outfits with grey or brown tones. When he is first seen by the children and Truly, he wears a rocket powered suit. During the funfair scene, while trying to evade an angry customer, Potts dresses up in an earth-toned Morris Dancer costume. Later, while the Potts' and Truly are at the beach, Caractacus wears a striped black and white swimsuit that was commonly worn in the movie's era. In the story that Potts is telling Truly and his children, while hiding in the Vulgarian toymaker's shop, Caractacus disguises himself as a red and green striped jack-in-the-box with a matching hat and clown nose. During the climax at the Baron's birthday party, Potts disguises himself as another toy, a colorful rag doll with a red, orange, and yellow German-style outfit complete with a yellow yarn wig and makeup. Personality Caractacus is an eccentric but kind and well-meaning man. He is a loving father and son. He would do anything to please his children and prove to his father that his inventions are not hopeless. He is very ahead of his time as shown by inventing a prototype television and vacuum cleaner. He is very serious when he is inventing. He is knowledgeable about cars since he restarts Truly's car and rebuilds a rundown and burned racing car into a gleaming automobile he and his children christen 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' because of the sound it makes. He is shown to be ignorant and annoyed when he first met Truly. After the Potts' beach outing with Truly when they say goodbye to her, he acts ignorant again. However, after Caractacus meets with Truly's father Lord Scrumptious at the Potts' house, he becomes romantic towards her and wins her affections. He almost always has a smile on his face. Despite his inventions backfiring, Caractacus is very good at persevering. Caractacus is very cunning as he's adept at disguising himself which is apparent when he dresses as a Morris Dancer. In Potts' story, he's just as clever when he's disguised as a jack-in-the-box and a rag doll. In the story, Caractacus also concocts the scheme to get into the Baron's castle and lead the attack on the Vulgarian government after his father, car, and children are taken away. In the story, he's shown to have great combat skills when he fights a group of soldiers after he rescues his children, sword fighting with them and even pushing one of them of the stairs. Also in the story, he loves other children such as comforting a frightened Vulgarian child named Peter and wanting to liberate them from Vulgaria's rule of having no children allowed. Evidently, Caractacus is good at singing and dancing. Citation *https://chitty.fandom.com/wiki/Caractacus_Potts - Taken from Chitty Fandom Category:Inventors Category:Male Category:Book Heroes Category:Movie Heroes Category:Live Action Heroes